1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to creating a web representation for a physical entity. More particularly, this invention relates to a location authentication mechanism that authenticates locations or positions of users or clients that generate access requests to a web server system with respect to a physical entity associated with the web server system such that the web server system can provide location-dependent or location-sensitive web services to external requests.
2. Description of the Related Art
As we know, the world we live in is a physical world that is formed by physical entities such as people, places, and things (or objects). For example, a bookstore is a place. So is a museum, an exhibition hall, a conference room, or a home. A book in a bookstore or a painting in a museum or exhibition hall is a thing. Likewise, a TV is a thing. A bus stop can be referred to as a place. These are some examples of physical entities.
With the rapid growth of the Internet and widespread use of the World Wide Web (WWW), more and more physical entities now have their own web sites and/or web pages. This form of representation for the physical entities is typically referred to as non-physical or virtual representation. In this case, each physical entity can have one or more web pages. In addition, each web page can also represent one or more physical entities. These web pages use written text, audio, video, and/or images to describe or illustrate their respective physical entities. The web pages may also provide services (e.g., e-commerce) for their physical entities. A person can simply go to the web pages of a physical entity to get information about the physical entity, or to conduct a business transaction with the physical entity (i.e., on-line transaction or e-commerce). These web pages form the virtual world or cyberspace of the physical world.
The web representation allows the physical entities to become more useful, convenient, and accessible. For example, instead of physically posting, at a particular bus stop, the arrival and departure schedules of various buses at that particular bus stop, the bus stop is equipped with its own web page which lists all the arrival and departure times so customers can access the information anywhere and anytime so long as they have the web address of the web page. The web page is also automatically updated in real time, thus avoiding the need for the employees of the bus company to physically post any change of the posted schedule. This provides people with accurate information cost-effectively and efficiently. As a further example, a retail store may have a web page that describes the merchandise it offers, directions to the store, and store hours. The web page might also provide easy email access for asking questions. Some stores might offer on-line ordering through their web pages.
However, although a physical entity in real world may have its web-based representation, the two are not tightly connected. This means that there is no means for bridging the two worlds together. In other words, the prior art structure does not provide means for linking people who are accessing a physical entity to its web page. For a person to find the right web page of a physical entity, the person either has to memorize the web address of the web page, or has to find the web page through searching and browsing the Web. This causes difficulty and inconvenience for the users to access those web pages. The inconvenience has increasingly become obvious because the Web has now grown to contain millions of millions of web sites and/or web pages. In addition, web pages are typically within a web site. The address of a web site can be relatively short and easy to remember. For example, the address of the web site of Hewlett-Packard Company is “www.hp.com” while the address of the web site for Microsoft Corporation is “www.microsoft.com”. However, this is not the case for the address of a web page within a web site. For example, the address of the web page for a particular turtle neck sweater on the Gap Inc's web site may be “www.gap.com/onlinestore/gapstore/product.asp?wpid=12977&sid=7HWUHN GFFSS12H0B00AKH2QFP8FE1BP4&wdid=214”. This is very hard to remember and use. The reason that the address is so long and confusing is that these web pages are transient and can be changed on a regular basis because physical inventory changes rapidly.
In addition, the prior web server system that hosts the web sites or web pages for the physical entity cannot distinguish user access requests that are generated by the users at the physical location of the physical entity from other user access requests that are generated by the users not at the physical location. This means that the web server system does not take into consideration where the user accesses the web server for the physical entity. There are many ways that the user can obtain the web address of the physical entity and then access the web server for the physical entity. For example, the user can sit at home or office searching through various search engines to obtain the web address. In this case, the user access is a remote one. As a further example, the user may be at the location of the physical entity and see the web address posted there. Then the user accesses the web server at the very location of the physical entity. Because the prior web server system does not distinguish user access requests based on their location, the web server system cannot provide special information and/or service to users accessing the web server at the physical location. Often times, there exists a need for the web server system to know this information and to provide different information and/or services based on this information. However, no existing prior art technology is able to solve this problem.
The above-mentioned problems are also amplified by the fact that more and more people can now access the Web through their mobile electronic devices. As we know, with the increased availability of highly functional portable or mobile devices and development of wireless networking options, more and more people are always connected to the Web through their mobile browser, no matter where they are.